36 GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 



Active cooperative association permits rare intimacy with 

 other souls, so that cooperation may be said to be a great 

 revealer of character. Scarcely an emergency in life arises 

 where a just estimate of human nature is not acutely needed. 

 Even in the sporting world it does not come amiss, judging 

 by that delicious bit of dialogue between young Nathaniel 

 Shaler and the village character, who, it will be remembered, 

 invariably got licked. 1 



" Sam, you ought to quit fighting ; you are n't good at it." 



" My boy," said he, "I am the best fighter in this here 

 county, but I ain't good at judging men." 



The point need not be argued further, that science and 

 cooperation go far toward making the sort of men and women 

 the world wants. If this is true, then the school world must 

 in time adequately educate in these two directions. The cause 

 of science has already many champions ; and yet the very 

 ones who are hot for science training in the schools are some- 

 times lukewarm in the matter of training for cooperation. 

 In the course of one short discussion on school management 

 all sorts of conflicting opinions may be heard. One person 

 sticks to it that school life should be and is competitive, while 

 another contends that the present-day schoolroom is in essence 

 not competitive. And then the talk wanders from the point, 

 till some speaker feels obliged to proclaim that in many a 

 school harmony reigns, that noble and generous personal traits 

 are fostered, and that truth, courtesy, and love for knowledge 

 are daily held up by devoted teachers to docile pupils. Not 

 for a moment can this be doubted. The Pied Piper may 

 never so successfully charm his young flock into following 

 him through the flowery fields of learning, and yet in all the 

 measures they tread there may not be one cooperative step. 

 They advance, to be sure, but without getting any dicipline in 



1 "The Autobiography of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler." 



